Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

The paranormal

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Time for another spooky stories thread?

584 replies

Hotpatootietimewarp · 26/09/2015 13:51

I know how much I enjoyed reading previous scary story threads so thought I'd start another and start with my own.

Now I always thought I had imagined this but after meeting up with my sister last week and getting on to this found out she remembers this too.

We both had a friend in the village who lived in a long house with an old barn out back, looked fairly normal had a ladder in the middle which took you up to the top level and the roof had a roof light window in it. Anyway this friend told us it was haunted and we thought she was having us on until she knocked on the door and an almighty bang answered, this kept happening. Then once it had stopped stuff started flying out of the roof window! Old sacks and old stove kettles etc! We were so scared but went in and no one was in there just totally empty. We then went in the house and said to friends mum and she said it must have been her dad but her dad was in the living room!

Needless to say I've never forgotten this and my sister obviously hasn't either.

So now I've started anyone else want to add any??

OP posts:
ToastedOrFresh · 29/09/2015 08:28

.

ThatsNotMyRabbit · 29/09/2015 09:18

PushAPushPop - the story about the stick man under the lamppost is not real. Don't worry :)

DontTellThePrincessBride · 29/09/2015 09:40

Place marking, will come back to tell mine once the baby is down for a nap.

KathyBeale · 29/09/2015 10:00

At the moment we've got flickering lights in our house. Now, this - I think - means there is a dodgy connection somewhere and we have the electrician coming on Thursday to sort it out. Is this what I think it is, though? Nope. Thanks to this thread, I'm convinced there's some sort of other-worldly reason for the flickers...

StormyLlewelyn · 29/09/2015 10:24

How pissed off would you be if you traversed the afterlife, tracked down your loved ones, pierced the veil between world's. ... and then discovered your powers were limited to faffing about with the light bulbs? :o

Dionysuss · 29/09/2015 10:25

A few years ago DHs great aunt died. Her husband was unwell and in hospital at the time. His family decided not to tell him incase the news was to much.

His son (DHs uncle) visited him the following morning and the first thing he said was ' you wasn't going to tell me was you?'
None of the hospital staff caring for him knew or would have told him. He just knew.

Just out of interest does anyone know if it's common practice to open a window once someone passes away to let the spirit out? I'm not sure if it's usual or I've just met very open minded NHS staff.

BunchOfBobs · 29/09/2015 10:31

Love this thread- so glad I'm reading it in daylight.

I have quite a few stories, not really creepy though- my maternal side of the family is very woo.

When I was very young about 3 my maternal great grandmother had passed. As is common practice for that side of the family we bring the body home before the funeral. As I was so young I wasn't allowed/expected to view the body, but everyone else exchanges stories/pays their respects etc over them in a specially reserved room. I was left in the coat store room which was also the smoking room (we're talking near 30 years ago, there was no issue back then to smoking around a 3 year old). When a family member came in to have a fag check on me, they asked if I was okay on my own. I'm told I responded with a "I'm not on my own, I'm sat on great grandads knee stroking Kelly". Now my gg had died when my DM was 18 so going on 20 years previous and Kelly was a deceased family dog. I had never met nor seen photos of gg but later that day my DM and nan showed me a photo of him asking who it was - "it's gg silly".

Another involving me was a few years later my DF was away in the Gulf War and I was sleeping in a spare room of my nans. My aunt came upstairs getting ready for a night out and apparently I was sat up in bed giggling and talking away to a corner of the room. It properly freaked her out and when questioned about it I was apparently talking away to various deceased members of family and had a message for my DM that gg was keeping DF safe and he would come home to us. It really comforted my DM.

There are so many stories from my family but those are my main personal experiences. Ive also had a hand on my shoulder in the weeks following my maternal grandF death, I told him hello and thank you. Never bothered me, it was like a reassuring squeeze of "I'm here". My DH though is completely spooked by any discussions of this nature so I never told him about that as it was in our house.

I too am also under strict instruction never to use a Ouji board. My DM was almost hysterical when begging me not to (after I kept asking why when a teen)- she won't tell me why but I no longer need a reason.

Keep the stories coming.

timeou · 29/09/2015 10:43

whomovedmychocolate you need to find out the story!

ThereGoesaTenner · 29/09/2015 10:48

PushAPushPop Fuck that! That is an appropriately placed conifer! I'd have crapped myself too after reading that story.

I've never heard of 'woo' before - what does it mean, just spooky, odd stories?

I love things like this thread. One of my old primary school teachers used to sometimes tell us spooky stories just before school finished, she'd tape up the window in the door so other teachers couldn't see what she was doing. She told us loads of stories about the school. Apparently it was haunted, it's from the Victorian times and had been converted to lots of things.

But this is what I remembered last night after reading what someone posted about their dad going down into cellars to do wiring...

Why I wasn't invited, I don't know - I must have been pregnant at the time! Envy
But my sister is the most laid back in our family, she doesn't give a shit about much and really doesn't care for 'paranormal' stuff. So...

One night both my sisters went out clubbing in the local night club, we know the owner and the people that work there. The next morning, my sister told me that "something fucking weird happened last night..." She then continued to explain it. Apparently when everyone else had left the club, they stayed behind with a couple people that worked there and the owner of the club. For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to go down into the old basement that wasn't used anymore.
So they were walking around, joking about and scaring each other.
Then my eldest sister said that suddenly my other sister just started to shriek the loudest she had ever screamed. She kept saying that she needed to save the little girl and she was trying to run towards her but couldn't reach. My eldest sister obviously wondering what the fuck she was talking about because no one could see a little girl. She said that that was the worst fear she had ever seen on her face.

Apparently my sister had seen a little girl crying and screaming for help. There was a beam in the way that had fallen down and was on fire. The girl was screaming even more but my sister said that she couldn't get to her because of the fire. The reason my sister was so shook up was because she thought it was her daughter, my niece, that was trapped! That was what freaked me out the most when she mentioned this.

They decided, along with the owner, to find out what the fuck my sister had seen. The building that was converted to a nightclub is really old and had apparently been restored after it was burnt out some many years before. I think they said it used to be a children's home or something, an orphanage that was burned down.

Fuck that! I don't know what I'd do if I thought it was my son that was trapped in a fire! Must have been fucking horrible to see!

ThereGoesaTenner · 29/09/2015 11:02

Bunch It was done in one of her friend's houses or their caravan I think, hence her friend's mum going nuts at them for doing it. My mum said that ever since something has stayed in the house/where they did it because there was always something weird happening to her friend afterwards - the glass came off the table and fingers slipped off and the circle broke. My mum tried to get them to carry on and finish it properly so "nothing came out or stayed" but some were too scared to touch it again.

Yeah I don't think I'll be doing a Ouiji board now. I've heard it loads of times but as I've got older it's sunk in!

DontTellThePrincessBride · 29/09/2015 11:02

I have a couple that I've told before under various usernames.

When I was little I woke up one night to feel feet pressed against mine, sole to sole, like when you top and tail with a friend sleeping over. I wriggled my toes and the other feet wriggled theirs. I pushed against them and they pushed back. I scuffled my feet around, playing a game, and the other feet joined in. They were definitely feet and not the wall or the door because they moved, I could feel toes and skin against my toes and skin, and they were mildly chilly. I presumed it was my little brother, we shared a room and he would sometimes get into my bed if he had a bad dream or went to the loo in the night and didn't feel like walking back to his own bed (I was nearest the door). After playing for a while I happened to glance over to see him fast asleep in his bed. I felt instantly petrified and didn't have the nerve to sit up and see who or what was attached to the feet, I couldn't even shout for my parents I was so scared. I lay there, heart thumping, getting nudged now and then by the feet. Eventually I must have fallen asleep. I have no explanation and I've never encountered them since.

The second odd thing that has happened to me was an incredibly vivid dream. I'm not going to try claim it as a ghost or anything, just as one of those weird things that the human brain sometimes does. DH and I were renting a crappy little flat and one night I had this crystal clear dream about it. I was in our flat but the decor was wrong. Brown carpet and orange curtains, brown sofa, the balcony railing painted green, one of those 70s blankets on the bed where is like a load of cordstrings sewn together - candlewick? - and I wasn't me, I was a different woman. I lived there with my boyfriend but I was cheating on him. One afternoon we had a huge argument and there was a scuffle. I stubbed my cigarette out on his arm and he stormed out. I was so angry and I hated him but I couldn't simply leave him. When he came home I'd hidden my other man in the bathroom, while I was talking to him the OM snuck through and stabbed him. Three times. Then shoved him to the floor, behind the sofa. At that point I woke up with a jump, utterly terrified, heart racing. And standing beside my bed was the boyfriend from the dream, the one who got stabbed. He was looking at me with a look of intense hatred. I closed my eyes, screamed for DH, and when I opened my eyes a second later it was gone. I've never had a dream like it, before or since, and I've never had a dream so vivd that it continues for a few seconds afterwards like that one did. Even now, ten years later, I can recall every detail of it. I can remember exactly what the boyfriend looked like when he was stood next to the bed - jeans, a black T-shirt, a denim jacket with a sheepfleece collar, brown eyes, brown, slightly curly hair, in need of a cut. It was very strange.

The last one is something that a happened when we went to Barley Hall in York. The place was pretty much empty and DS, then aged 1, was enjoying having a toddle around the place. We were down in the hallway outside the buttery and there's a staircase leading upwards with an open railing alongside. DS started to crawl up the stairs so, laughing, I stuck my head through the railing and said "what you doing!?" in a funny voice. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I heard a rustling behind me and then a woman whisper-hissing to me in a rushed, urgent ton, questioning what was I doing down here/there. I leapt a mile, grabbed DS, and moved to a different part of the house. DH followed, splitting his sides laughing at me. He'd heard it too and pointed out to me that there were speakers all over the place, playing sounds and voices. I felt like a complete idiot and laughed too. When we got back to the entrance we hung around the shop for a bit because it was chucking down outside. We were chatting to the two ladies working there and told them what had happened. They very nicely explained that there are no speakers in the buttery and thanked me for sharing as they were locking up that night and now had that a knowledge on their minds! They also said that usually peoewpele got funny photographs rather than hearing voices. When we checked our photographs we didn't have anything odd in the ones taken in the buttery but one of the ones taken from the balcony, looking down, had a vertical streak of light in it. At first I thought it was a reflection from a doorknob but when I zoomed in, the light is actually a little way in front of the door knob and not in line with it so isn't a reflection at all.

Anniejo91 · 29/09/2015 11:04

Here's one that can be easily explained away...

We bought our first house 3 years ago. One night, about a month after we moved in, I woke up and I'm sure I saw a man stood in the corner of our room. He was wearing a long coat and top hat and he started to walk across the room. I screamed out and my DH woke up and asked what was wrong. Obviously no-one was in the room, so I just presumed I'd imagined it.

Then about 3 months ago, DH was away on a stag do. We had an airer in our room with some washing on. I woke up and I was immediately drawn to the airer and I swear I saw 2 young children crouched down next to it. I screamed out which woke my DS so I switched on the light and again no-one was in the room. I've since read about shadow people and I'm convinced that these are what I saw.

Although the perfectly logical explanation is that I was actually sleeping (and it was a dream) but thought I was awake? Definitely creeped me out though Confused

VoodooLooloo · 29/09/2015 11:12

I saw what I think was a shadow man at our old house. Lovely, modern house, nothing spooky at all about it or near it.
We moved in painted, decorated, nothing. No cold spots, no bangs in the night, footsteps on the stairs, a perfectly normal house.
I fell pregnant and things began to change. The house seemed sinister somehow, neither me nor DP could sleep. We both had awful dreams and spent our evenings avoiding going upstairs to bed. DP worked shifts and I used to beg friends to spend the evening with me so I wasn't alone. We had two cats, both of which avoided going upstairs.
The house was laid out so the foot of the stairs needed to be crossed to get into the kitchen. Both me and DP felt something was at the top of the stairs and we would hurry past the bottom not looking up.

One evening we had spent the day arguing, constantly, I was about 7 months pregnant and so fed up. We stood at the bottom of stairs and I saw something in the corner of my eye. A feeling of heaviness came over me and I truly felt I couldn't breathe. I nudged DP and we looked to the top of the stairs. A man was stood there, fully in shadow, though there was no light or window to create shadow if that makes sense. He had a trilby style hat and was just stood .
The house was so oppressive, I tried to put it down to pregnancy hormones but everyone who came over felt uncomfortable. It was just so odd that nothing had been amiss until I feel pregnant!

Luckily we moved out when DC was a few months old. I still walk past the house on a weekly basis and I can't bear to look at the upstairs Windows.
The girl who lives there now is a friend of a friend I'd love to ask her if she finds if a spooky house.

I love the story of the ww2 lift in the hospital. I fully believe in time slip type things, and probably ghosts to. I don't imagine many of them are sinister, shadow men/slender men/black eyed children now they are bloody scary!

VoodooLooloo · 29/09/2015 11:29

Anniejo spooky shadow people X-post Shock

Hotpatootietimewarp · 29/09/2015 11:37

babba what did you mean pulled by a Facebook thread?

So glad to see more contribution and some really creepy ones in here, rocking chairs going in baby's room Shock

Keep them coming!

OP posts:
tomatodizzy · 29/09/2015 11:38

I have a couple of stories that were retold by the original tellers, although I have forgotten a lot of the details.

The first happened in Northern Scotland, along a stretch of A road, I think it was on one of the Isles. It was told by a lorry driver who sometimes helped out on a family friends farm. He told me about 15 years ago, so I have forgotten a lot of the details. It's a classic hitch hiker story that I would not believe if I hadn't heard it straight from the horses mouth.

The lorry driver was coming down from Scotland, having made his delivery. It was a typical dark Scottish winter night, light snow. On the side of the road he saw a dark figure of a man, wearing fisherman's boots and a classic old style Macintosh and hat. I don't know if the figure flagged him down but he pulled over into the layby, opened the passenger side door and called out for the man to climb in out of the cold. He waited a while and then started to panic, thinking he'd clipped the man with the lorry. He got out to check, walked all around the lorry and called out,but there was no one there. He climbed back in and set off again. He said he kept turning the heat up but couldn't get warm. The cab was getting really cold. He drove for a while in the cold and cursing that his heater was broken. Suddenly the temperature in the cab shot up. He was sweating and a little freaked out. He pulled into a cafe, to have something fried and sweet tea. He told the owner and a few locals that were in there the story and she asked where it was that the heating had gone back up. He told her and she said apparently there was a mile stone that marks the sight where a man was murdered. There were local sightings of the ghost and a few lorry drivers had experienced something similar. They thought he was a Victorian fisherman that had hitched a ride and been murdered on his route home!

The second story comes from a local man called João Velho (Old John). He's about 80 and a bit of a hermit. A typical rural character that everyone knows. When he was young he used to poach Marsh Deer but one day he stopped doing it and he will never kill an animal or cut down a tree because he is terrified of the curupira, he warns people about it. Curupira is a Brazilian legend of a little boy or small man with flame red hair and his feet are on backwards. He is the guardian of nature, they say it hunts the hunter and plays tricks on him. Mostly he's depicted as a cartoon like character and looks comical. But after Old John's story I look at him in a whole new light. Old John was hunting deer when he heard a piercing whistle coming from a crop of trees, he crouched down to see if he could catch what was making the noise. Out of the crop ran a boy. The difference between this boy and normal boys is that he was running at the speed of a large cat rather than a human, his feet were running forwards but the rest of the boy was facing backwards. Old John said he started running, the Curupira chased him and not only did it gain on him, it suddenly appeared in front of him. All he could see was the back of it's head, it screamed and was a sound that Old John said made his insides knot. He ran in the other direction but was pursued through the bush by the screaming and whistling, occasionally catching sight of the Curupira. This went on for some time. Old John was scratched and bleeding by the time he reached the village. He never hunted again. personally I think he was drunk and high on some plant or other

Hotpatootietimewarp · 29/09/2015 11:41

Haha no way I've just realised this thread has made it on to mumsnet Facebook page I feel very privileged and finding it very hard not to share it and announce to everyone at the risk of outing myself!

OP posts:
BigRedBall · 29/09/2015 11:42

I'm loving this thread!

Thefitfatty · 29/09/2015 11:49

totmatodizzy's made me think of a story my friend told me. She swears this is true.

She and some friends were driving in their car along a highway heading to a dance in another town when they were about 16 when they saw a guy hitch hiking. He was young, about their age, and was wearing a school jacket for another nearby school so they stopped to pick him up. He got into the back seat and sat next to my friend, and told them he was going to the same town they were to see his girlfriend. My friend said he was quiet and felt "cold" but she was a bit tipsy so didn't think much of it, until about 3 seconds later when she turned her head away from him to speak to the person next to her and when she turned her head back the guy was gone. Nobody saw him leave, the car was moving and he certainly didn't open the door and jump out, just gone.

Naturally they were all totally freaked out, so they did a U Turn and drove back the way they came. When they got to where they stopped to pick him up all they saw was a little white cross with flowers that marks where someone was killed in a drunk driving accident. Turns out a teenager was struck down by a drunk driver there about 6 years before when he was hitch hiking to see his girlfriend.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 29/09/2015 12:01

I love these threads and have a story of my own now Smile

Last year we moved into a lovely, big, Georgian house with lots of quirks and history. We had our offer accepted the previous December and it took all of 6 months to get the paperwork sorted out, even though the house was empty, because of problems with the land registry. In the spring we thought it was about time to take the kids to see it and visit their new school so one day when they were off school for the dentist we took them.

I was wandering round the garden admiring the crocuses and I could hear the children playing in the house, making a lot of noise. Then I looked back and realised the kids were at the other end of the garden, in the summer house.

The skin absolutely prickled on the back of my neck. It was a very loud, clear sound of children playing. I absolutely had not imagined it and it was definitely not my kids.

I got one of those free subscriptions to Ancestry.co.uk and went through the old censuses and discovered that in the 1850s a big family had lived there (6 kids, but 2 were the same names and ages as 2 of mine!).

However.
Having lived in the house for a year I now know that because of the way the houses and gardens are arranged down the side of the hill, the noise of children playing in one of the gardens further up the hill echoes back from the house and makes it sound EXACTLY as though the sound is coming from our house....

Blondeshavemorefun · 29/09/2015 12:57

I've several stories

When my brother was a baby he cried non stop in his bedroom and as got older would point to a corner and say man. Finally called a vicar /spiritual person in and apparently someone died in that room. She put a small cross on a chain up high and the man never bothered again

when mum found out preg with me she moved him into another bedroom and I went in there and I found the chain and removed it asking what I was for and my mum absolutely screamed at me to replace it

2nd story

Years later when I was 18 my friend and I went out for drinks and she stayed over. I woke up and saw a shape sitting on end of my bed - assumed it was my friend pissed. In the morning she asks me why I sat on the end of my bed. I said it was her. We both didn't move all night from our beds. Following day we found out that my grandpa died. Not sure if it was him?

3rd story

Where I worked as a nanny it was a huge house and was country cottages Joined together and many years old. I was babysitting late at night and looked up and saw a man in a suit by a chair. The dog would always wimper in that spot.

Another friend saw a shape on the sofa and assumed it was me - and I was in the kitchen. A 3rd friend was babysitting when I couldn't and she heard footsteps go across the ceiling and assumed it was the lodger who lived at other end of house. But he couldn't get to main house upstairs without going through the sitting room where she would have seen him

I Believe !!!!

MrWriter · 29/09/2015 13:33

Definitely not place marking...

Hotpatootietimewarp · 29/09/2015 13:43

These are all great and so pleased to see its still going strong!

So I've just remembered a couple more, this first one isn't something that happened to me but the road is nearby where I live.

There is a flyover bridge near where I stay in southwest Scotland and apparantly this is one of the most haunted highways in Scotland. A lot of people have claimed to be driving along late at night and someone has jumped in front of their car. Thinking they have hit them they get out to check only for Nothing to be there. I used to hate driving that road as a home carer years ago but it never happened to me.

This second one happened to my granny I'm a bit sketchy on the exact details but will ask her for the full story next time I speak to her.

She used to live near southport in an estate and at the end of the estate was an old burned out farmhouse sat on some derelict land. My granny would often walk her dog there and quite early in the morning or a bit later at night. Anyway this day she had went out either early on or later I'm not sure but it wasn't the middle of the day and as she was walking the dog round this land and the house she happened across this man who seemed similar ages with her at he time, he said hello and patted the dog and went on his way, then as my granny turned for whatever reason he was no where to be seen, just then another walker was heading towards her (someone she knew) and she asked had they seen the man she was talking to and they had said no and made some joke about the resident ghost walker. I still think about it and it gives me the willies. I remember walking round there with her and getting a horrible feeling about the place

OP posts:
MrsB1988 · 29/09/2015 13:47

Myself, Dh and mil went down to Nottingham to pick up a specialised sewing machine, on the way home we stopped at motorway service station. (Really wish I could remember which) I went to the toilet it was long and narrow and not well looked after. Every other toilet was broken or dirty and me being a fussy mare went right down to the end to find a clean toilet next to a clean toilet. Whilst I was in I heard a door slam near the entrance and although it was odd I hadn't heard anyone come in I just assumed it was mil. Came out started to wash my hands and as I glanced up in the mirror I saw a figure walk behind me towards to end of the toilets. I turned my head in the direction of where they went and there was nothing, for about 10 seconds I didn't think anything assuming it to be mil then remembered my mil was wearing a bright orange top so it couldn't have been her. I finished washing my hands and took a few steps to the side to see what was around the corner only to find a single empty cubicle and a brick wall. Realising I had seen a figure that had not only disappeared as soon as I turned my head, but also disappeared into a dead end, I freaked and ran out. Once in the safety of the car I burst into tears and told mil and Dh. They told me to tell the staff but I didn't expect them to take my seriously.

MarthasHarbour · 29/09/2015 13:50

Mine-is crap but i am really just blatantly place marking! Grin

When DH and I were house hunting we saw about 20 houses and were starting to feel a bit disheartened by the whole thing, so we drafted in MIL and FIL for the day. MIL is non-woo, matter of fact and straight down the line. (i on the other hand am a bit of a wuss!).

Anyway we viewed this bog standard terraced house, but when we went in both me and MIL went cold, something was telling us not to go any further. DH and FIL went happily ahead and swore they couldnt sense anything but me and MIL were totally freaked out, we did view it but the two of us rushed around that house so quickly (to be polite as the owner was there). DH and FIL thought we were hilarious but to this day both me and MIL swore there was some kind of history to that house. We literally couldnt get out of there fast enough.

We then went to view a house across the road straight after and when we go there the owners of that house said they knew what we meant, they had been in once before and were freaked out by it - bless her she had to give us a cup of tea to calm us down!!